shadowlurker

OK, a few things to address... Yes the check-in and departure point for Unmasking the Horror Tours has changed. You can check-in for your UtH Tour 15-30 minutes prior to your departure time at the Blue Man Group Theater located between Universal Studios Florida and the Hard Rock Cafe. Just look for the tours representative who will be located in the courtyard just outside (most likely with some sort of signage or podium). They will have you sign in and then direct you to the space where everyone will be waiting that day (either the Blue Man Group VIP Room or the covered area just outside the theater entrance). At the scheduled departure time the guide(s) will greet everyone, give a brief event overview and then take their group into the park. Houses visited during an UtH Tour are determined day of depending on availability so no one will be able to tell you in advance exactly which houses will be visited on which tour or the order they will be visited in. Again, NO ONE can guarantee you a specific house is part of the tour or which tour time a certain house will be visited. There are a variety of reasons for the decision to be made daily as to the houses visited which include, publicity photo shoots in a house, repairs going on within a house, video footage being shot in a house during a portion of the day, work lights not functioning in a particular building or even the fire alarm system being inspected. The guides who do UtH Tours go through an extensive training and learn the details of all 9 houses so no matter which ones you visit they are able to talk (at length) about them. Generally, a determination is made as to what the 6 primary houses will be, which will be back ups and on rare occasion which will not be visited at all. This determination is made just before the training for the guides takes place, just a couple weeks before the event starts. The reasons for choosing the houses that will be a part of the UtH Tours include, which houses are more visually rich and provide great opportunities for photographs, which ones are viewed to be more interesting to the fan base, houses that are more accommodating to groups of 15 guests following a guide, visibility (houses that are better lit during the day than ones that remain dark), etc. If a certain house is visually rich, but overly claustrophobic or not have areas a guide can address their entire group, it will (sometimes sadly) usually not be a part of the tour. If a house is more scareactor/creature driven and not overly detailed visually, it will usually not be a part of the tour as those scareactors/creatures aren't in there during the day. Also keep in mind that if you were to book a Morning Only Tour one day and an Afternoon Only Tour on a separate day, you may repeat a house or two. If you would like to see six houses you are far better off booking a Combo Tour, this is the only guarantee you have of not repeating a house. On another note, guests who booked their tour online; unfortunately you are provided with very little to address your arrival time and check-in process. As mentioned above, once you have picked up your tickets or have printed them at home, please arrive 15-30 minutes prior to your scheduled tour departure time in the courtyard in front of the Blue Man Group Theater. There will be a tour rep out there to assist you once you have reached the courtyard directly in front of the theater. Finally, at the conclusion of your UtH Tour the guides will be required to walk their group to the park exit and make sure all guests exit the park appropriately. Since their inception, the UtH Tours have never required park admission in order to take part, but it is getting harder and harder to justify this, especially when guests have been seen staying in the park following their tour (and openly posting about it online) and not exiting the park. As the guides giving the tour do not have a ticket scanner on them to check annual passes or event admission tickets to ensure they are active they can no longer allow their guests to just go off into the park on their own following the tour and will have to take them to the exit at the end of the tour. A minor inconvenience, but if it helps prevent admission being required to take part in the tour it's certainly worth the walk back up to the front of the park. At any rate, have fun out there and enjoy your tour

Non-Private Tours with mixed parties depart at different times throughout the evening. As admission is separate, you can arrive and check in once the park has opened for the night and then go into the park on your own until closer to your tour time. Generally 20-30 minutes before your tour time you should check back in. At that point you will receive the title of the group you have been assigned to and can relax in the lounge until it time for the tour to depart. If all members of your party booked together in one order you will not be separated, but if you were to book separately then there is no guarantee you would all be in the same overall group. Once the tour departs you are guaranteed to visit all 9 haunted houses (one time each) and have reserved seating for the Bill & Ted show. The guides will usually try to work in one or two bar stops along the way as well, and of course restrooms stops whenever needed. Once the tour has ended, park hours permitting, your RIP Tour credential will get you express access to any of the regular park attractions that are open that night. The express access only applies to the rides, it will not work at any of the haunted houses. Private Tours begin at 6:30pm and last until park closing that night. They can have up to 10 guests per tour guide and are tailored to interests of the group. You can visit the houses and any available park attractions as many times as you would like while with the tour guide and can also visit the Bill & Ted show with reserved seating as well. Private tours are far more flexible and longer in duration, but can be costly if you have a smaller party (which is why a lot of people will get a group of 8-10 together and split the cost).

There are four major events that occur during HHN that are usually blocked out from the start. Depending on the number of guides each event is going to require for staffing some of those dates (or all of them) can eventually open up and become available, though usually somewhat limited when it comes to the number of tours that can be sold. It never hurts to check in from time to time with the tour office to see if a date that was "sold out" when sales began has become available. Some of the internal events don't provide the tour office with a final headcount for their event until somewhat late in the game so if they are able to open up sales it doesn't always get changed on the online calendar, the only way to know would be to call and check. It's always a good idea to have two dates in mind when booking your tour just in case your primary date happens to be sold out or not currently available. You can book your secondary date and then check back later to see if there's any chance of moving what you've booked. So long as there is availability that usually isn't a problem at all.

UtH Tours have never been offered anywhere near this early in the past. A select number of spaces were opened up for pre-sale as part of a hotel package for this year, with select dates not even available for pre-purchase as part of the package. This pre-sale add on option is very limited and the program ends at the start of the summer. Eventually the tour will go on open sale for any and all interested and more than likely some of the dates currently listed as "sold out" will open up for sale as usual. So fear not, these early bookings will more than likely not utterly sell out any particular date by the time open sales occur for all. The only blatant mistake in the current pre-sale info is the inclusion of Sept. 16th being an UtH date, this is incorrect as UtH Tours do not go out the first day of the event.

Hey there gang, Yes, to dispell any misconceptions some may be having or any confusion, the Unmasking the Horror Tours do visit 3 different haunted houses at each departure time so if you do book both a morning and afternoon tour on the same day you'll end up getting to see 6 different houses. The only stuff during the tour that would repeat would be what the guides tell you at the start of the tour when giving an event overview and some history information and the information you'll hear when they discuss the streets. Otherwise, you'll be getting to visit 6 out of the 8 houses and be able to take all the pictures inside each one that you would like too.

Ugh, dont even mention those damned annoying blinky cups, lol. Curse them and every other light up flashing object that are sold during HHN.

Well, storylines can easily be continued without repeating the house. The Skoolhouse was a house then a scarezone, Psychoscareapy has been various houses, each following the central storyline but vastly different in each execution.

Yes, definitely bring a camera. There is an incredible amount of detail in those houses that'll never even notice at night when the house is up and running (plus you really shouldn't be taking pictures then anyway). Plus, while the house is up and running at night you'd never have the chance to stop for a moment and take a picture of yourself in your favorite room or next to a prop that you really like, but during the tour you can easily do that.

The Christmas holidays again? Interesting theory, its completely off the mark and has already been done, but an interesting theory none the less.

There will be no UTH tours on Sept 24th, wouldnt want to give anything away the first day before the event has even started but they should start the next day on the 25th. Final details have not been set in stone just yet, they're close, just waiting on final approvals and such. The age restriction will apply again this year. The guides conducting the tours can not be held responsible for someone underage. Dont be surprised if there is a price increase, hopefully it wont be a huge one. In the past the tour was offered twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. As the tour only takes place on HHN event dates the last tour has to be clear of any houses by 4pm so the tech crew can the house ready for that night's operation. Remember, if you want to be on the mailing list for the RIP and UTH tour info the moment it is cleared for release all you have to do is send a brief email to viptours@universalorlando.com and ask to be placed on the HHN XX tour information mailing list.

Some basic background props go up before RTU, but nothing with blood or overtly HHN type things on them. Once RTU has ended thats when the main stuff starts getting put in place out in the streets.

Oh guess i shoulda mentioned, Con Artist is the new internal title for the express pass sales people who insist on calling them VIP Passes and insist you wont wait in line with one.

You'll get bones thrown to you when they deem it the appropriate time. As for an icon going bye bye, old icons never truly die, they could come back at any time. When it comes to HHN always expect the unexpected.